IPOH: The number of registered voters for the Tambun parliamentary constituency has increased by about 49%, says the Election Commission (EC).
Perak EC director Mohd Nazri Ismail said as of Oct 20, Tambun has the highest number of registered voters in the state, with about 160,000 people eligible to vote there in the 15th General Election (GE15).
In 2018, there were about 108,000 eligible voters.
Mohd Nazri said most of the voters in Tambun were in the Manjoi state constituency, totalling about 86,000 people.
Manjoi is one of two state seats under Tambun, a Malay-majority constituency; the other is Hulu Kinta.
“Tambun has a lot of people, including youths, with many of them working in Ipoh but living in the federal constituency,” he said when met at the state EC office here yesterday.
“Manjoi is also among the state seats with the most young voters aged between 18 and 20, with 7.39%.”
The incumbent MP for Tambun is Bersatu deputy president Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu, who defeated Umno’s Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah and Muhamad Zulkifli Mohamad Zakaria of PAS by a 5,320-vote majority in GE14.
Last week, Pakatan Harapan chairman and PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced his decision to contest there in GE15, while Tambun Umno division chief Datuk Aminuddin Md Hanafiah has been tipped to stand there.
Perak, together with Perlis and Pahang, is the only state that will hold its state election concurrently.
Mohd Nazri said the total registered voters in Perak stood at 2,036,872, with about 526,000 of them being new voters.
Of the new voters, 111,800 are those aged between 18 and 20.
“The biggest group is those aged between 30 and 39, totalling 439,885 or 21%. This is followed by those in their 20s, at 404,336 or 19%,” he said, adding that the smallest group comprised those aged 90 and above, at 10,263 or 0.5%.
On the state demographics, Mohd Nazri noted that the Malay voters were the most, with about one million people (51%), followed by the Chinese at about 690,000 (34%), Indians at about 246,000 (12%), Orang Asli at about 41,000 (2%) and other races.
“We are still updating our database. There are still some names that are duplicated, some voters who have passed away but their names are still in our data, and some who have lost their citizenship,” he said.
“There was one case in Gerik, where one person aged 104 died in India, but it was not reported to us.
“As long as the family does not inform us, we cannot remove the name from the registry,” he added.
Mohd Nazri said there were 953 polling stations in the state, and these included 72 centres for early voters like the police and armed forces.
He said polling centres for the public included 843 schools, 34 halls and four government buildings.
